Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Show Gronstal Some Love

I just love this video of Iowa State Senate Majority Leader Mike Gronstal's.

Here Gronstal is giving a speech on the State Senate floor about his decision not to support Minority Leader Paul McKinley's efforts to amend the Iowa Constitution after yesterdays decision to allow same sex couples to marry.

One of my daughters was in the workplace one day, and, in her particular workplace at that moment in time, there were a whole bunch of conservative, older men. And those guys were talking about gay marriage—they were talking about discussions going on across the country—and my daughter Kate, after listening to it for about 20 minutes, said to them: "You guys don't understand. You've already lost. My generation doesn't care."

I think I learned something from my daughter that day, when she said that. And I've talked with other people about it, and that's what I see, Senator McKinley. I see a bunch of people that merely want to profess their love for each other and want state law to recognize that.

Is that so wrong? I don't think that's so wrong. As a matter of fact, last Friday night, I hugged my wife—you know, I've been married for 37 years—I hugged my wife. I felt like our love was just a little more meaningful last Friday night because thousands of other Iowa citizens could hug each other and have the state recognize their love for each other.

No, Senator McKinley, I will not co-sponsor a leadership bill with you.

My friend Steve always says, "they're all eventually going to die," when referring to these older conservative opponents to gay marriage.

I can't help but think he's right.

I sent a thanks to Gronstal and you can do the same here if you fancy.

Welcome!

I talk about whatever I fancy, but politics, gender, and religion are the topics that are nearest and dearest to my heart. (The title is “Random Thoughts of a Crazy Liberal.”)

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Golden Nugget of Thought

“And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren’t any other people living in the world.”